Mother knows best
by Eva Loves You
Summary: Haispray fiction that takes place before the movie about Velma's relationship with her mom and her marriage to Amber's father. Please read and review :


As long as she could remember, Velma's mom entered her into beauty pageants. When she was little it was fun and then as she got older it stopped being fun for her but her mom still pushed her into entering the contests to feed her own ego. She had always said if she had a daughter she wouldn't be like her own mother. She wouldn't make her daughter enter a lot of pageants and try to put her in the spotlight. She would listen to what her daughter wanted and not be controlling. She wouldn't tell her daughter to do whatever it takes to win like her mother did. It was the reason she won every pageant she had ever been in. She didn't learn until recently that her mom always slept with the judges in the pageants she won then she arranged for Velma to sleep with the judges of the Miss Baltimore Crabs pageant in 1944. Any risk for winning was worth it that's what her mother always said. She was so ashamed about what she did to win it made it hard to enjoy her title sometimes. After her year was up she was relieved. She was always afraid that someone will find out how she won and now that it was over no one will care. She made plans to go away to college so she can get away from her over bearing mother for a while and maybe start a career but her mom had other plans for her.

"Pretty girls like you don't go to college Velma. All you have to do is marry the right man."

"Mom, I'm not ready to get married. I don't even have a boyfriend. Besides, I don't want to depend on some man to give me everything I want. I want a career." She said determined.

"Velma that's nonsense! Besides, I know someone that's perfect for you. He's rich and he can provide you with a good life."

"Mom, I'm not letting you set me up. Besides I told you I'm going to college. I still have my scholarship money from the pageant, remember?"

"No one really uses that money for college. You know that. As I was saying, I've been talking to Franklin Von Tussle and he really likes you a lot."

She knew Franklin Von Tussle very well. He was a friend of her father's and he was a wealthy oil tycoon. He had been looking at her since she was fourteen and Velma always found him to be creepy. The way he looked at her up and down back then was just weird. He was forty years old now, and he wasn't attractive. Velma didn't want to go out with him.

"Mom, I don't like Franklin Von Tussle. He's ugly." She said

"Looks don't matter when it comes to money. All you have to do is marry him and he will provide you with the type of life you are accustomed to. I'm sure he'll propose to you when the time is right because I'm certain he won't break up with you and you are definitely NOT breaking up with him." Velma was shocked and upset. That her mom would want her to marry a man old enough to be her father and wouldn't allow her to go to college. She wanted to say no but she couldn't. She had no choice. If she didn't she didn't know what would happen to her. So she allowed Franklin Von Tussle to date her and he was just as creepy as she thought. She was pretty much his arm candy in public and his slut in private. She didn't want to sleep with him but her mom insisted that she did it right away and made it good so she wouldn't lose him. She always closed her eyes the entire time and waited for it to be over. A few months later her mother got her wish when Franklin proposed to her. She wanted to say no but she knew how upset her mom would be if she did.

Her marriage wasn't a happy one. It was worse then just dating Franklin. She found out that he worked a lot and also drunk heavily and when he was drunk he turned verbally abusive. When he was at work she found her self lonely in his big house with nothing to do. She still wanted the career she hoped to get when she graduated college but she knew she couldn't have it now. She wasn't happy and no amount of clothes and jewelry could make her happy with Franklin. Now, she knew what people meant when they said money couldn't buy happiness. She told her mom that she wanted to leave him and she got hysterical. "Are you crazy?! You ungrateful witch. I did a lot to arrange this for you and you want to blow it? I don't think so! You stay with him and you make him happy!" Her mother said but she knew that wasn't going to happen. When they were married for almost a year she found out she was pregnant. She wasn't happy about it because if she thought she was stuck before she definitely was now. Plus, Franklin Von Tussle should father no child. He was happy about her pregnancy, though. It really surprised her.

"I'm finally going to have a heir!" He said excitedly then hugged and kissed her. During most of her pregnancy he didn't drink and he hardly worked. He was always by her side when she went to the doctor and he loved to rub her belly. He was finally acting like a real husband to her and all it took was for her to get pregnant. She still didn't love him but she was starting to like him more and thought maybe her marriage could work out after all.

"I can't wait to see my son! We are definitely calling him Frank jr" He said when she was nine months pregnant. He always knew the baby was going to be a boy. He went as far as having the nursery done in blue and buying boy toys.

When he came in after she had the baby to take it in his arms, she told him it was a girl not a boy and he put the baby down like it was contagious. "How the hell did that happen?! I don't want a girl! What am I going to do with a girl?" He screamed at her.

"We'll have a boy next time." Velma said trying to reassure him as she cradled the baby in her arms.

"You'll probably mess up again and it will be another damn girl!" He said as if it was her who determined the sex of the baby.

"Look at her isn't she beautiful! I thought we could name her Amber. What do you think?" She said trying to cheer him up.

"I don't give a damn what you name her Velma. Just keep her away from me." He said then left the room. Velma knew then that the days of having a loving husband were now over. It got worse when she was at home with baby. He got mad when Velma held and fed Amber at the table when they ate. "Can't you feed her before we eat? Looking at her makes me lose my appetite." He said and didn't say another word. Velma tried to make things better. She wanted her daughter to have a loving father like she once had before he died. She told him things about Amber's growing up like when she crawled and when she took her first steps. She even put pictures all over the house of their daughter but he still was bitter towards her. Eventually she just gave up and made Amber her whole life and ignored him. He started working a lot and drinking again.

When Amber was four years old she drew a family picture of them and she excitedly showed it to Velma who gave it to Franklin hoping he will see the type of life Amber thought they should have. The pretty house with the sun shining and the family smiling and holding hands. She thought he would smile and sit Amber on his lap for once and try to be the daddy he should have been since the day she was born but instead he ripped the picture up and left the room. Amber dropped her head and asked "Mommy, why doesn't daddy like me?" It broke Velma's heart to see the tears in her little blue eyes.

"He does honey. He's just been very upset lately. It has nothing to do with you." She said and hugged her daughter. Later, Velma went to her mother and told her everything that happened. "I have to leave him mom."

"Velma don't start that again. If you leave him you'll have nothing. Is that what you really want?"

"What I want is for Amber to be happy. She's not happy living with him and I'm not either."

"One day Amber will appreciate all of the things you can buy for her. Now, she's just a child and she doesn't know any better. Have you considered entering her in the Little Miss Baltimore pageant? She's old enough now."

"Mom! I don't want to talk about pageants! I want my daughter to be happy and she's not!"

"You won't be happy poor Velma. Remember that. You've never been poor before but I have and it's a hard life that you don't want," Velma realized her mom was right and she was trapped. She thought about it late one night when Franklin had been drinking again and forced her to have drunken sex with him. She hated when he did that. This wasn't going to be her whole life: a miserable daughter and a drunken loser for a husband. She had to do something and fast. Franklin was asleep now and she looked over at her sleeping husband and without thinking twice. She took her pillow and put it over his face. He didn't even make a sound. And later no one questioned her story when she said he died in his sleep.

She inherited everything Franklin had and even though she felt guilty about what she did, she knew it was for the best. Amber was much happier now that her dad wasn't around treating her like crap and so was she. She got her career dreams too when she became the manager at the local TV station. She deicided her mom was right she wouldn't have been happy poor. In the end she was glad she married Franklin Von Tussle, it was much better this way. If her mom was right about that she had to also been right about the pageants. She started entering Amber into them right away. Amber seemed to enjoy it like she did when she was her age. She made all kinds of plans with the judges of Amber's pageants. It was like her mom said, "Do whatever it takes to win" After all mother knows best after all.


End file.
